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5/04/2008

Alice Walker on C-Span this morning

I heard Alice Walker, the author of The Color Purple, talk about owning a rifle for protection against the Klan. Here is a similar discussion by her:

Both books deal with some of the same topics, such as the Ku Klux Klan's death threats to the young family in Mississippi. Rebecca describes how 'Daddy sits in sometimes with the rifle and the dog waiting for the Klan to come'. Her description of her own graduation day in San Francisco makes clear the tension that existed by then between her parents: 'My parents are careful and each guarded, both of them skating across the surface studiously avoiding waters they might lack the skill to navigate. My father sits in our living-room like a stranger... my mother sits in a rocking chair, shelling pecans and offering uncharacteristically terse replies.'

The discussion on C-SPAN involved how the rifle was there for protection of the children.